Profiles

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant James Ward, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 29 Dec...

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Corporal Paul H. Weinert, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 2...

Indian Campaigns Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. He was a First Sergeant in the United States Army in Company I, 7th US Cavalry. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on December 29, 1...

Twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Guy Henry Preston was the youngest officer at Wounded Knee. He was assigned to the 9th Cavalry and was serving as a platoon leader in A Troop, U.S. Indian Scouts. He was ...

Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

Background

On the morning of December 29, 1890 a detachment of the 7th U.S. Cavalry massacred some 185 Lakota men, women and children in a camp near Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

The massacre started with an attempt to disarm the Lakotas. After the murder of Chief Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890, Chief Spotted Elk and his band left the Cheyenne River Reservation to seek the protection of Chief Red Cloud at Pine Ridge. The band was intercepted by the 7th Cavalry under Colonel John Forsyth, and escorted to a camp at Wounded Knee.

At dawn on December 29, the army entered the Lakota camp, separated the men from the women, and began to disarm them, taking mostly knives and axes. A scuffle started when troops tried to take the rifle of a deaf man, Black Coyote. The rifle discharged. Both sides started firing. American soldiers fired into the tipi camp of women and children. The women scattered over the prairie and into ravines, some of them for miles, but soldiers hunted them down and killed them with their children.

The fighting lasted less than an hour. Casualty estimates vary. Lakota casualties included at least 185 killed and 51 wounded (some of whom died later). General Nelson Miles put the death toll at 90 warriors and about 200 women and children. Military records show that 84 men, 44 women and 18 children were buried in an unmarked grave. Some estimates place the number of Lakota dead at 300. Twenty-five U.S. troops were killed, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded would later die). Many of the U.S. casualties were probably victims of friendly fire.

U.S. newspapers applauded the American victory. Twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to American soldiers. Gen. Miles relived Col. Forsyth of command and convened a Court of Inquiry, but Forsyth was exonerated and reinstated.

The massacre has become iconic in American history. Traditionally, it marks the end of Indian resistance and the closing of the American frontier.

The Wounded Knee Battlefield was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965 and was listed on the U.S.National Register of Historic Places in 1966. In 1972 members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee as part of a protest against broken treaties. In 1990, after extensive hearings on the matter, Congress issued a statement of "deep regret" for the massacre at Wounded Knee, but refused to issue a formal apology. (101st Congress, Concurrent Resolution #153).